Unusual family members
by Solembum7
Summary: After RTS Pritkin is finally back. He and Cassie shift into a suite full of people, being busy with birthday preperations.
1. Chapter 1

I shifted us directly into the living room of the penthouse suite. Pritkin ducked immediately and Tami's fist only missed him because of his lightning fast reflexes. Obviously we had startled her, which was sort of understandable, considering the fact that Pritkin and I had appeared out of thin air only inches from her face.  
He quickly took a step back, holding up his empty hands to demonstrate that he wasn't a threat to her, which certainly would have worked better if he hadn't been armed to the teeth.

"It's ok, it's just me, John, Cassie's bodyguard, remember?" His voice was calm.

I had introduced him to the rest of my court a few days ago, so they already knew that he was my personal bodyguard. At least, well, officially.

"Man, you startled me!"

After Tami realized that I was here, too, she tried to calm herself down by taking in a few slow, deep breaths. She wasn't exactly fond of war mages. Given her past experiences, I really couldn't blame her.

"That wasn't my intention Miss Hodges, I'm sorry." He looked at me accusingly and ok, maybe we shouldn't have shifted into the middle of the living room, but I honestly hadn't expected that many people.

"I told you, it's Tami," she smiled at him, but didn't offer her hand. I realized, that she made sure not to touch him. She wasn't merely impolite, there was a reason for that.  
Tami was a powerful magical null. Just her presence in the room must be tough on Pritkin's magic, but he certainly wouldn't appreciate it, if she touched him and thereby possibly drained his magical energy. At least I guessed that much, as he just nodded and went for the kitchen, on the other side of the large room. I caught myself staring after him for a second, before I mentally rolled my eyes at my behaviour. Luckily no one else seemed to notice.

Maybe because the whole room was a mess. At least this time it was a comfy mess, I decided.

There were kids and...things everywhere. Weird clothes, hats and other stuff, like coats and dresses in different colours were piled up on the table in front of the couch. But all of them had one thing in common - they looked old and reminded me slightly of the clothes the people wore during my last adventure. Costumes, I realized.

Rico, covered in black, with leather pants and a matching slim fit black shirt, sat on the couch next to Rhea and absently rubbed his jaw, watching her. His other hand lay on her back. Her skin was still a little pale and she wore a sweet blue scarf to cover up the red line across her throat. Her dark brown hair was a nice contrast to the light blue and it brought out her beautiful blue eyes. No wonder Rico obviously couldn't keep himself from staring at her. Or perhaps he just didn't want to.

She smiled at me and Pritkin, nodding in greeting and continued to dig through the pile of clothes, spread on the table in front of her, aided by four little girls, poking out from behind the mountain of stuff.

"Ewww, that's rusty!", Rhea said and the look on her face matched the disgusted sound of her voice. It was still a little scratchy. She held a metal helmet out in front of her and scraped with her fingernail at a dark spot on it's side.

"Oh, I don't think this is rust, I'm pretty sure it's bl-something else," Rico caught himself, becoming aware of the audience surrounding us.

"Ewww!" Rhea instinctively let the helmet fall to the floor. "That's even worse! It could be infective!" She started towards the huge medical closet besides the kitchen, I assumed to get some disinfection.

Pritkin harrumphed. "Uhm, if I remember right, I can assure you that it isn't infective." His eyes narrowed. "Where did you get it?" he came back from the kitchen, where the coffee machine audibly bubbled and stretched out his hand. Rico took the helmet of the floor and gave it to him.

It was Tami who answered. "Well, I didn't want to use the pythian court budget for the costumes, so we plundered the Casino's dressing rooms."  
"Among other things, I assume?" Pritkin asked.  
She nodded. "The ward was already destroyed before I took them" she looked a bit caught.

"But you drained it anyway, to make sure there's nothing left…to react?" Pritkin asked and it was clear that he had intended to say something else. I silently agreed with him, it wouldn't be a good idea to say "to make sure there was nothing left to practically run amok and rip somebody to shreds" in a room full of kids. And the armor/ ward would have been definitely able to do so. I knew by personal experience.

"Of course I did!" Tami snapped, clearly offended. "Otherwise it would be too dangerous to use the armor as part of a costume, especially for children."  
"And how can you be sure it isn't infective?" Rhea's voice came from the kitchen, where she was busy washing her hands.  
"It's mine," Pritkin stated matter of factly. "I'll clean it up for you," he offered and Rico handed him the matching shield, which had some more rust on it's otherwise shiny surface.

Rico raised an eyebrow.  
"It had been one of those days, you know?!" I told him, before Pritkin could answer. He headed for the kitchen without further comment. For a moment I thought I'd seen a grin on his face.

One of those days. Well, it didn't really cover it, but I couldn't give Rico the whole story with the kids around. All in all it had been a painful and bloody mess most of all for Pritkin, who had gotten a mean leg wound and half his ear sliced off, during our desperate flight. Thanks to his healing abilities his ear was whole again, but it had been damn creepy to watch it reattach itself.

I tried to shake off the picture of him with blood everywhere and goosebumps spread over my arms. We had survived and recovered and it seemed like ages had passed ever since. So much had changed in the meantime.  
Most of all the... situation between me and Pritkin.


	2. Chapter 2

"So, are you planning a costume party? Is there a reason?" I asked Tami, who was busy searching through the huge pile of clothes. Rico moved a little, to make some room for me on the couch and I settled down beside him.

As if he'd read my mind Pritkin came back and handed me a glass of coke. I took it gratefully and took a sip. Ok, coke zero then. But it was almost frozen. Perfect.  
I smiled at him and noticed that he just stood there and looked at me for a moment, before he headed back to business again.

"Yes, exactly! It's Lara's 7th birthday tomorrow and we're planning a small party for the kids. She wanted a costume party and well… Fred came up with the idea of a King-Arthur and his knights theme," Tami explained with sparkling eyes and a huge smile on her face.

I heard a piece of metal fall into the water filled sink with a thud and a splash, followed by one of those weird british swear words.  
"Don't swear!" Tami and Rhea told him simultaneously. Pritkin sighed audibly but didn't comment, while he was drying off the counter around the sink.

"So, Fred came up with it, really?" I couldn't keep the sarcasm out of my voice completely. But I didn't want to ruin the happy mood so I decided to go for my best poker face which obviously wasn't that good.

Tami frowned but nodded.  
"Lara will be the princess and the others had to draw matches to distribute the roles."

She fished something out of the pile, that suspiciously looked like fake ears.  
"Sienna! Look what I found," Tami announced and held it up. Yes, definitely ears. Spiky ones.  
I drank my coke and Sienna came around the piled table with her long brown hair framing a happily smiling face. Her big brown eyes got even bigger, when she saw what Tami held up.  
"Wow! Now I will really look like her! Jesse found a fake wart and a fake scar, too! This will be so cool!" She turned her sparkling huge eyes on me and held up the ears. "Cassie, look! I'll really look like Morgana!"

I almost spit my coke all over her at that and immediately started to cough, which is why I almost missed the loud bang of an iron helmet crashing onto the kitchen floor.  
Rico's reflexes must have kicked in automatically, because before I could blink, he ended up in front of the suite doors with Rhea in his arms. In the meantime he must have vanished from my side, run to the kitchen, grabbed Rhea and stopped short of the suite door with her. All that done before he even had a chance to realize, that there wasn't an attack.  
Pritkin nodded, approving his unnecessary but quick and straight reaction.

Rico actually looked embarrassed, which wasn't something you gotta see often on a master vampire's face. Especially not when it came to Mircea's masters. Hell, especially not with Rico of all people. It told me more about how tense our situation was, than any words would have.  
He quickly released Rhea, who looked a little pale.

"Uhm," I said brilliantly, too busy to stare at Pritkin. He had picked up the helmet and his face reddened slightly, but he didn't say anything. I couldn't tell, if it was because of the audience or because he didn't want to talk about this at all. We hadn't talked about that particular topic yet and I didn't know what exactly he remembered from his past, but I couldn't leave it standing in the room like this. Which left me with a problem here.


	3. Chapter 3

"It's Morgaine actually," I told Sienna, my voice calm. "And who told you she had warts and scars?"  
"Morgaine?" she repeated the word and I nodded.  
"She was an evil fey sorceress, wasn't she? So I thought about stories of ugly bad witches…"  
I sighed.

"Okay, where should I start? There are a lot of things said about Morgaine, but I guess some of them are at least exaggerated or got changed if they weren't completely made up from the beginning. First of all," And it was important for me to make that clear, "I don't think that she was really that evil."

I didn't want to overtax the little girl, so I tried to keep it simple.  
"She may not have been perfect, but she had to face a lot of bad stuff and dealt with it, as best as she could. But to be honest, I really don't know, what she did. It was a different time back then, you know? And she wasn't ugly, she didn't have warts and scars."  
Sienna looked almost a little disappointed.

"On the contrary," I continued. "She was a stunningly beautiful and powerful woman."  
The happy smile came back. She put the fake warts and scar back on the piled-up table, but kept the spiky ears.  
"And she had human ears, I'm afraid."  
"But she was a fey!" Sienna was a little outraged.  
"She was part fey. A forth to be precise, which was why she didn't have those spiky fey ears."  
"But being part fey, she could have had them, didn't she?" Obviously she didn't like the idea of the part human Morgaine, but I knew someone else would.  
"Well, technically she could have, but she hadn't."  
"And you know this, how?" Tami asked.  
Damn.  
I had to be careful what I said, but after all Tami and the kids were part of the family.

"Yes, how do you know?" That was Pritkin. He had either interrupted the cleaning or was done because he leaned with his back on the counter, coffee mug in hand and doing his best to look casual. It might have even worked on everyone else in the room, but on me? Not so much.  
I saw it in the set of his jaw, the strain of the muscles on his neck, in the way he clung to his coffee mug. A barely noticeable nod reassured me, that he wanted to know and didn't mind the audience, at least not yet.  
"I met her," I said and met Pritkin's eyes. I wanted him to understand that, despite the fact that we weren't alone, I told him.

"Wait, what?" Tami hissed. "I mean, you met her, as in, personally?"  
"Well, more or less, yes. She didn't see me, but I saw her and, as I said, she was beautiful." I tried to watch Pritkin's face, while he tried to hide his expression behind his mug. The other girls had come around the table and sat down on the carpet, all of them watching me curiously. I looked at them and smiled, a little apologetic.  
"To be honest, there isn't much I can tell you about her, because our time was short."  
"And she was powerful? What could she do?" Sienna asked with huge brown eyes.  
"She was able to use elemental magic of four different elements, which made her very special and unique," I explained, guessing that Pritkin already knew this much. He didn't look surprised, so I might be right about this one.

"Four elements? Are you sure about that? Legend has it, that only Merlin the Wise was able to command four," coming from Rhea, with her voice just a little more than a whisper. She sat down on the couch next to me. I couldn't help myself when a broad grin spread over my face. Someone mentioning "Merlin the Wise" just flat did that to me.  
It didn't help that right now he casually leaned on the counter, with the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up his muscled forearms. It was one of his new long sleeves,which lacked holes, hadn't any stains of blood or dirt and had a nice slim fit cut. In some places he had obviously managed to spill water on it. The shirt clung to his skin in interesting ways, especially when he moved his arm to drink his coffee, showing the slight tensing of his muscles...  
"Cassie? Are you in there?" Tami waved her hand in front of my eyes, pulling me out of my thoughts.

I nodded and felt my cheeks flush slightly.  
"Yes, well, she said so herself. But back in her time it was just like it is today and being powerful almost always gets you into trouble. Add the fact that she was part of a royal family and they were in the middle of an ongoing war and well, she...had a lot of sh-," I caught myself, "a lot of bad stuff to deal with."  
I didn't want to tell about the situation, when I met her, right now. And this was definitely something I'd rather tell Pritkin in private. After all, she had been his mother.


	4. Chapter 4

"As for Merlin... he is said to have gained those abilities from her. Morgaine was his mother, if you didn't know."

"His mother? I thought he was in love with her?! Morgaine is said to be Merlin's great love, isn't she?" Rhea asked.  
Pritkin made a harsh sound and quickly drank some coffee.

"That was his father, actually. They looked alike - at least if you didn't know them personally -," I added quickly. "He named him after himself and it confused the hell out of the historians."

"You mean, his father's name was Merlin, too?" Sienna asked, her voice a mix of awe and curiosity. "That's weird!"

"It was Myrddin, essentially, but yes."

"Murdhin?" Tami repeated frowning.

"Myrd-din," I corrected automatically. Pritkin's eyes widened and his emerald green gaze held mine. I'd probably triggered a memory by mentioning his name - or more precisely - his former name. He nodded a little weirdly into his mug, I figured to give me the permission to continue and I did.

"It wasn't exactly common knowledge in her time. On the contrary, she had reasons to...well, to abandon her son, if you like." My gaze didn't leave Pritkin's face, mainly to give him a chance to interrupt, if he'd like to stop or take a break or whatever. His eyes locked with mine again and his expression was pretty serious. He didn't say anything, so I went on.

"At first she hadn't really cared for anything but a chance to get accepted by the fey of her family who...ignored her. They merely respected pure blooded and powerful fey." I fought to keep the sadness out of my voice, but I didn't manage completely, when I continued.

"Morgaine was only a quarter fey and therefore lived on earth, which was pretty poor compared to the wonderful world in fearie. She thought, that if she found a way to improve her power, they would have to accept her." Pritkin slightly shook his head. Knowing the fey way better than I did, he knew better. If ever someone managed to show bitterness, without moving much more than his shoulders, it was him. Or maybe my brain just came up with it, because I knew he had to experience a lot of that special sort of racism concerning himself.

"One day Morgaine met a powerful incubus and found out, that he might be able to help her. He teached her magic and hoped that she would... help him to...uhm… father a child, but they didn't tell eachother. I know, it sounds ridiculous, but it happened anyway." I shrugged. "She gained a lot of her power and magic through... uhm," I searched for the right word to use in front of the kids and settled for "through her partner."

Pritkin blinked and took a deep breath. Mentioning Rosier still didn't go down well, but I guessed after all those years of pure hatred, he would need some time to come around with the concept of Rosier being not-so-bad-as-he'd-thought, eventually. The vein on his neck didn't visibly pulse yet, which I took as a good sign.

"Before she knew that she was pregnant Morgaine and her partner had already chosen different paths in their lives. Morgaine found out, that her fellow fey still didn't accept her. It had even become worse, because they clearly disdained her for her...partnership with one of the demonic kind. It surely made her sad, I guess. I'm not sure, but I think it's safe to say that she was more than disappointed. Morgaine decided, that her son would be better off without her and her so called 'family' and kept her pregnancy a secret. She was sure that the fey would come to kill her son, if they ever found out about his existence. Which was why she gave her son to his father."

I shuddered mentally at the thought and paused, giving Pritkin some time to process that. To distract myself, I drank some of my coke. I wondered not for the first time, if I could have done that. Could I have given baby-Pritkin away, even if it was to save his life?  
I never stopped watching him and there was a faint hint of surprise in his face now. He definitely hadn't known that.


	5. Chapter 5

"His father didn't see a chance to take the baby with him into the demon realms. He is -," I hesitated, it would definitely bring up too many questions if I told the whole truth in this case. I decided for a compromise, "he was -" as in 'at the time' which was okay, I guessed, "the king of the incubi and therefore his son had been the righteous heir to the throne which made him a huge target among the demons. In the demon realms he'd have been dead within days. But being king, he couldn't just leave his duties, his world and his people for long, which was one of the reasons why he gave the little boy to a farmer couple, living on earth."

Pritkin's pure green eyes narrowed. "And how would she know that, after abandoning her child? She couldn't have told you that, because she couldn't have known, could she?" Pritkin did his best, but he couldn't keep the harsh undertone completely out of his voice. And he damn well knew, who had told me.  
"Well, no, but he knew."  
"And he told you that?" Great, I had managed to make him angry. But before he shut down himself, I had to make a point.  
"Yes, he told me that," I managed to keep my voice calm.  
"You believed him?" he asked, his voice not much louder than a whisper. Looking at his face I was pretty sure that he'd have preferred to scream the words at me.  
I nodded slowly.  
"I didn't say, that I liked it, or would have agreed with it."

Tami was the first to catch up.  
"Wait, wait! Are you telling us, that you actually talked to Merlin's father?" The look on her face was priceless.  
"Myrddin's," Pritkin and I answered simultaneously.  
"Myr - yes, whatever. You talked to him?"  
I shrugged, searching for the right words.  
"It's been a hell of a week," I told her and focused on Pritkin again who was about to turn around, an angry look on his face.  
"In the end," I spoke up a little and he stopped, facing me. "In the end, Morgaine and his father realized, that they never thought about what Myrddin would have wanted. She - both of them, regretted that. They both cared about him and wanted to know that he was safe. In their own distorted ways, they loved him. But sadly, he had no way to know that." I didn't know what he would do with that information, but I had wanted him to know.

Pritkin went into the kitchen to refill his empty mug. Obviously, he didn't know yet as well.


	6. Chapter 6

"Did he really have that long white beard?" Sienna asked and I shook my head. The thought made me smile, but before I could elaborate, Alfred saved me, at least for the moment.  
"You won, so give me the hat!" he told Jesse. Both of them were coming in from the huge balcony, interrupting my little history lesson.  
"Catch it!" Jesse teased an threw the large blue witch hat over Alfred's head. It slowed down in mid motion until it stopped completely and slowly floated back down to Alfred.  
"Nice catch, dude!" Jesse laughed. Then he saw me.

"Cassie!" He smiled happily, came over to hug me and thereby managed to turn the attention of the kids on me again.  
Alfred beamed at me, wearing that ridiculous huge hat and hugged me, too.

"Alfred, Jesse! Cassie is telling us about Morgana - Morgaine. She really met her!" Sienna was so incredibly cute in her excitement that even Pritkin smiled at her. He was back, the steaming content in his cup obviously calming his nerves, despite the incredibly huge amount of caffeine.  
The smile on his face made him look more like his younger, more unburdened self. My heart skipped a beat as I took in the image and felt how it warmed me down to my core.

"Wow, you met her?" Jesse asked, his eyes all curious.  
I nodded.  
"And did you meet king Arthur, too?" Arth Aur, I thought, but didn't say.  
"And Merlin?", that was Alfred.  
"His name was Myrddin, Cassie told us!" Sienna announced, her voice proud. Pritkin's smile widened even more and I was busy trying not to stare at him like the love drunk fool I obviously was. It didn't go well.

"Yes, uhm, well, the situation was a little chaotic with the ongoing fight, but in a way."  
There was stunned disbelief in their faces.  
"Alfred is going to be Merlin at the party and I'll be king Arthur! We had to draw matches because we both wanted to be the king, but I won." He proudly lifted a large fake sword. "I'll use Excalibur and save the princess!"  
"I'm sure Merlin was so much cooler than Arthur," Alfred's voice sounded stubborn. "He had his magic, he didn't need a magical sword." Alfred's eyes fixed on mine. "What would you say, Cassie? Who was better? King Arthur or Merl- Myrddin the wise?"

Oookay, I already knew I'd never live this down, no matter what. While it was an easy decision for me, it wasn't that easy to explain to the others. I couldn't go into details for various reasons and I surely couldn't tell them the truth.  
"That's a good question, I'm honestly curious about the answer," Pritkin's smile turned into a bemused smirk. I was so screwed.

"Mhm, I'd vote for Myrddin. He was brave and loyal, powerful and helpful." I could have continued that list for a while.  
"And Arthur wasn't?" Pritkin grinned evilly.  
"Arthur didn't have much choice, but you… you... know...Myrddin could just have left." Damnit that was close. Pritkin raised a single eyebrow and I quickly continued.  
"He was free, it wasn't his fight, but he stayed anyway. Myrddin would have given his live to protect that of a slave he barely knew." His green eyes focused meaningfully on me again.  
I thought about our short trip into fearie, when he caught me out of thin air, as I was falling. Or when we had been imprisoned in Camelot and he let us vanish right through the thick stone wall, forcing nature itself to move around us, to let us pass. The moment he made us invisible in front of that old tapestry with the hunting scene, with not only his hands touching me...

"So, being part incubus and part fey… was he as hot as I would expect?" Tami asked, with a big grin.  
"Oh yes!" The answer shot out of me and...and... shit. I felt my face start to flush.  
Seriously.  
The girls started to giggle, Tami, Rhea and Rico laughed and Pritkin...chuckled. I stared at him in a mix of awe and the growing impression, that he might finally lose it.  
"I want to know all the details! But not now," Tami winked.

"It's said, that he also freed the coven leaders, who were caught in a deathtrap and thereby saved the coven witches all on his own," Rhea added after we had calmed down a little.

Well, he had some help with that, I thought. I could still easily picture the coven leaders, but the image that stubbornly fought its way to the front of my thoughts was the scene from our somewhat desperate attempt to get past the fey guarding Nimue's. I resisted the urge to use the cold coke to cool down my heated cheeks and took another sip of my coke. Nonetheless I had the impression that the temperature in the room increased a notch. Even my mouth seemed to become a sudden independent being, wetting my dried lips with my tongue, while my brain helpfully reminded me of the soft texture of his skin, his individual scent of spent magic and his exclusive taste.

"Myrddin's parents have been so stupid. They had no idea what they missed!" that was Jenny, forcing my awareness back to the here and now.  
"Yes, just like yours!" I sent her a smile and watched the faces of the other kids, most of whom had been abandoned at some point in their lives.  
"I take it, he just didn't fit in anywhere, did he?" Jesse asked, suddenly a very serious look on his face. Just like me, was the obvious implication. Pritkin hid behind his mug again.

"There's nothing wrong with being special or even unique! Your character depends on the decisions you make, not on the abilities you own." Tami had teached me that, a long time ago. She nodded vividly.

But before I could go on, little Lara nailed it, better than I could ever have. She had decorated her long dark blond hair with a ridiculously huge silver diadem and looked at me with her huge blue eyes. "I wished, that Myrddin had found a family like ours for himself!"  
And just like that, everyone agreed with her. The kids nodded, some of them confirmed with a mumbled "me, too".  
"He certainly would have deserved it," Rhea added.  
Their words were so sweet, so absolutely lovely and heartfelt, that tears began to fill my eyes.  
"Yes, he'd have deserved it," I confirmed, looking in his eyes. And even more, I thought, before I bent over to hug Lara. "I'm sure he found one and became a valued and loved part of that family," I whispered.

Pritkin had emptied the second mug, his cheeks were slightly red. "I have to look after my potions, I'll see you later." With that he fled.


	7. Chapter 7

As soon as he was out of sight, I felt the strong urge to get up and follow him. It was as if I could physically feel his absence, the now empty space in the room. The last time I felt something similar, it was with the geis, trying to pull me and Mircea together, while we desperately fought to resist temptation. Holy shit, the last weeks really must have gotten on me.

"Does he have a family?" Lara pulled me out of my memories, thoughtfully looking after Pritkin, the endless curiosity only children inhabited showing in her voice.  
"Yes, well, sort of. He has a father, but they don't get along well," which was the understatement of the century, "And… he has us." I smiled at her. "You okay with that?"  
Lara thought about it, her face dead serious - it was so cute, I really had to concentrate to show her, that I took her seriously instead of giggling and kissing her.  
Pritkin must have done something right and passed her personal test, because finally she nodded. "I like him, it's just…," she looked on the ground, suddenly shy, "it's just he doesn't have a costume yet! If he is coming to the party, he has to choose a role!"  
"I'm sure, we will come up with something." I patted her shoulder and smiled at her.

A few minutes later I laid my "costume" onto my bed and resisted the urge to let myself fall down right next to it. I had to choose between knight and slave and considering the Vegas heat, I definitely preferred the small grey "dress" to the whole armor with shield and helmet and all. Said "dress" was actually made of an old grey linen tablecloth. It was cut and sewn like a tube, held up by an attached rope like a neckholder. Tami had gotten me a second rope around the waist to give it at least a little bit of shape, accepting the disadvantage that the "skirt" would end another inch or so too soon.  
I decided to worry about that tomorrow.

My cell on the nightstand made a single beep to announce a new message. I grabbed it and sat on the bed.  
"My room, in 10 minutes? We'll talk."  
Okay, I thought, a little torn between the wish to avoid that talk and the upcoming happiness, simply caused by the knowledge that I'd see him soon.  
"Ok," I sent back.

Ten seemingly endless minutes later - in which I had nothing to do but wait - I shifted down to the floor that lead to Pritkin's new suite. I could have walked, but I wasn't in the mood to explain everyone I met, where I was going, or why. It wasn't any of their business.

Pritkin opened the door before I could knock and a weird smell emerged out of the room. "I'm almost done, you may have a seat." He was already heading back towards the small kitchenette of his newly obtained suite. I sniffed again. "What's that smell? Are you cooking?"  
"Brewing," his voice informed me, while he was busy rummaging in the kitchen.  
It took me a second.

"You really are brewing some potions in here?" It made me curious, so I followed him. "To be honest, I thought it had just been an excuse to leave."  
"Well, it wasn't." A funnel in one hand and a pot in the other, he filled a steaming violet liquid into four champagne glasses. I guess he had to improvise after his former room had been ripped to shreds. The counter of the small kitchenette was packed, but most of my view was blocked by his broad back.  
I didn't mind.  
"That damned spartoi cost me most of my stuff," Pritkin mumbled. Yeah and almost his life, I added mentally.  
After he had filled the glasses, he held his hand over them, closed his eyes and said some strange words that I didn't understand. A spell obviously, because the color of the liquid changed into a dark green with an audible whiz. I could feel the energy on my skin, like a light warm breeze.

Suddenly he shook his head and chuckled again. But he didn't say anything.  
"What is so funny?" There wasn't enough room in the kitchenette for a chair, so I carefully shoved the vials and bottles a little aside and sat on the counter.  
"You should have seen your face, when you told Tami that Myrddin was hot. Let me quote - oh yes!" Pritkin smirked.  
I felt my face flush again. Damnit, I really needed to work on my poker face.  
"You really need to work on your poker face," he told me grinning, while he cleaned up the pot.  
Sure.

"But first, I wanted to ask you something. I'm a bit... confused lately in telling the difference between dreams and memories." He shrugged, "Well, I think getting hit by a curse that sends your soul on a hellride a few hundred years back into past doesn't come without side effects."  
"Well, I can try, but I also have a question or two." I didn't know much about how the manipulation of memories worked, but Pritkin had told me once, that it was tricky with mages.  
He nodded.

"The two of us entering camelot on the roof of a carriage full of actors?"  
"True." I smiled at the sweet memory of our kiss and immediately felt a strange weightless feeling in my stomach. Butterflies, I thought. Didn't people say that about this feeling?  
"Good. Me catching you falling down from a wooden platform of a treehouse in faerie?"  
"Also true." A small voice in my mind started to wonder, if he chose a few special moments on purpose. The memory of his younger self came to my mind, with a breathtaking grin on his face.  
"Good to know."

"It's my turn," I informed him, my gaze following a single drop of sweat that run down his neck and vanished beneath the shirt. "Why do you have your shields up?" It had just occurred to me, that he was surrounded by a faint blue shimmer, which didn't really make sense when his suite was practically as warded as it could get. It was barely visible, but it was definitely there.  
"To shield," was the dry response.  
"Pritkin, seriously!"  
"Let's say that our latest adventure had left a mark. You will find out soon enough." His voice was clipped. I knew the tone in the meantime. He wouldn't elaborate right now. Instead, his face went serious. He put the pot down, dried his hands and came towards me.  
"What you said in the tent, while the shit hit the fan all around us," he slightly hesitated, then his green eyes burned into mine. "Did you mean it? I mean, do you still...mean it?"

Oh hell, did he really just ask me that? Really? I mentally rolled my eyes and searched for the right words.  
"Pritkin, I gave you a summary of what had happened during the last two weeks and it had been the worst shit I have ever been through, but despite all that and the apocalypse threatening to destroy the world, I can tell you one thing for sure. I have never, NEVER meant something more in my life."  
He looked relieved, the tension in his shoulders easing slightly. "Your turn," he said and threw the towel on the counter next to the sink.

"When we waited for the demon council's judgment, I'm pretty sure you wanted to tell me something. What was it?"  
Pritkin raised an eyebrow before he shook his head and moved closer towards me. I automatically spread my legs a little to make room for him, wanting him to come even closer. "Try again," his voice was low, but it sent a breeze of air to the sparks of fire inside of me, sending small waves of heat through my nerves. I swallowed.

"Do you remember the celebration in fearie after we escaped the fey warriors? Because if you do, you still owe me! I won our race through the treehouses and didn't have the chance to get my reward before we were attacked, whatever it would have been." Oh my god, did I just say that? Shit, I was practically begging him to..., well, … I must be out of my mind and shouldn't I feel embarrassed? Because, somehow, I didn't. Maybe I was okay with that. Actually, I was okay with that, I realized and looked at him expectantly.  
And then he answered all of my questions.


	8. Chapter 8

He grinned evilly before he leaned in to my right ear, close enough that the stubbles on his jaw brushed my cheek. With his hand he put some of my curls out of the way. He must have lessened the intensity of his shields, because suddenly I could feel the heat he gave off. His lips settled on a spot under my ear and he started to lick and kiss his way up behind it ever so slowly. The soft touch of his lips and tongue on my skin made me shiver and my hands grabbed the shirt on his sides.

When he spoke, his voice was a low whisper in my ear. "Do you think you know, why my shields are still up?" I guess I understood now. He shielded himself from me, knowing that he would project his need, his hunger. I nodded.  
"Do you care?" His right hand wandered from my neck down my spine and under my shirt. A wave of heat spilled through me, when he touched bare skin.  
"No," I managed to say, proud of myself that it was a word and not merely a sob. I wanted him to know, that I wanted all of him, I needed it and that he didn't need to hide or hold back from me. Nothing. Never again.  
When Pritkin pulled back to meet my eyes and cupped my face with his hands, I told him so. His amazing green eyes darkened around the irises and his gaze burned into mine.  
"Miss Cassandra Palmer," he took a breath, "I love you."

And then he tilted his head to the right and smiled. The big, open and heart warming smile of which I hadn't been sure whether I would ever get a chance to see again. Yet there it was. I took it in, let the expression and his words sink in, before I pulled him to me and kissed him.

The kiss began sweet, soft, exploring, but after a few seconds Pritkin pressed his fingers slightly on my arm. I felt how he let go the iron-tight grip on his control and dropped his shields.

Suddenly it was all there.  
The unique scent of him, the humming electricity of his energy, the overwhelming need, the hunger, the heat. I welcomed all of it, breathed it in, let it wash over me like a rush. He picked me up as if I weighed nothing and carried me to his bedroom.


	9. Chapter 9

His lips stayed on mine, while he held me. He sensually bit my lower lip and then caressed it with a sinuous move of his tongue, before he deepened the kiss again. I gasped for air when we finally broke apart, feeling my own treasonable frantic heartbeat in my chest.

Pritkin set me down on the edge of the bed and went to his knees on the ground in front of me. He let his hands travel from my cheeks down on my neck, a slight brush of my collarbones, farther down along both sides of my body. I gasped in need, as his hands reached the sides of my breasts, even with my shirt and my bra still perfectly in place. His eyes widened as he took in my reaction, but he continued his journey obliviously.

I half expected him to take my shorts down with the movement, but he didn't. His hands wandered over it, caressing my thighs through the thin cotton. It tickled a little and sent an unconscious shiver through my body. He stroked down along my legs with only his fingertips brushing my skin following an invisible path. When he reached my ankles, he started to open the stripes to put off my sandals.

I watched the muscles on his shoulders move beneath his shirt and bent down over him with the intention to pull it off. I pulled on it, wanting to see and craving to touch his slightly tanned skin.

After he had pulled off my shoes, Pritkin looked up at me, his gaze locking with mine. Slowly he pulled his shirt over his head in an elegant, exciting, sinful movement. My hands grabbed the sheets to stop myself from jumping him, literally.

He took my right leg in his hands, kissed the back of my foot and started to lick his way up my leg, just the tip of his tongue touching me. His eyes stayed locked with mine. Obviously the man had decided to take his time to drive me crazy. The oh so light touch of him prickled on my skin.

When Pritkin reached the edge of my shorts he interrupted his journey and came closer to kiss me again. It was passionate, uncompromising, possessive. He buried his hands in my hair, pressing his body against mine. After a few more seconds we breathlessly broke apart, and he started to shove my shirt upwards, his hands sliding along my body and with one more pull it went flying. He pulled back a little to watch what he had exposed. I felt his gaze heavy on me, full of unleashed want and barely controlled hunger.

"Hold still," he ordered and before I could ask one of his knifes appeared in his hand and a determined grin on his face. I didn't dare to move and felt my breath catch in my throat when the cold, razor sharp steel touched my skin as he cut through my shorts from thigh to hip with a single movement.  
He repeated the movement on the other leg, grabbed me by the hips, lifted me up and let me down again, just a little farther on the bed. A low growl escaped him, emerging from deep in his throat, while the remains of my shorts followed my shirt to the ground.

Pritkin followed me onto the bed, forcing me to lay back on my elbows, crawling over me like a hunting panther. I watched the way his muscled shoulders moved as he bent down to place a soft kiss on the edge of my belly button. I groaned in response. God, I was so full of need and anticipation that it almost hurt.

Pritkin grinned evilly, his green eyes dark with lust. His jeans still perfectly in place, he placed one knee in the space between my legs. I could feel the rough denim on me through the soft lace of my panties.  
The tip of his tongue was back on my skin, drawing a line, following the royal blue lace on the soft swell of my breast.

I felt the hardness of him touching my stomach through his jeans as he bent forward to kiss my neck beneath my ear. Heat radiated off him in waves, drowning me in sensation, while he continued his sinuous torture. "Pritkin, please, I -"  
He put his finger on my lips and then kissed me quiet, pinning me to the bed with his body. When he let me gasp in some air, the knife was back in his hand and he cut my bra through the middle. I wanted to protest but the words stuck in my throat as he replaced the bra's cups with his hands and focused on my breasts. He brushed my nipples simultaneously with his thumbs, slightly stroking them and it made me ache up my back, pressing myself against him, pressing his erection against my thigh, while my fingers were digging into his shoulders.

He moaned and his mouth closed over one of my nipples. I felt him circling it with his tongue and when he suddenly sucked it in, it was my turn to moan, a rough, involuntary sound of pleasure. He watched my reaction at his sweet torture and must have liked what he saw, because he moved to do the same with my other nipple.

No, I thought, not the same, when he unexpectedly bit down, hitting just the edge of pain and pleasure and I cried out.  
Damn, I was so aroused I wanted to scream and he hadn't even gotten me out of my panties yet.

"Pritkin!" I buried my hand in his hair and pulled a little, to make him look up at me. The look on his face -  
God, that look on his face.  
His eyes were almost black with a green fire burning in them, highlighting the impression of a predatory panther hunting down his favorite prey. He let his tongue slowly glide over my breast. It made me shiver, the desire almost overwhelming.

"Pritkin please!" Dignity be damned, I thought, I wanted him and I wanted him now. NOW. I was sure I couldn't stand that any longer.

He pulled back, which brought him into a sitting position with my right thigh beneath him. I followed his movement, kissing him deep and hard and demanding. One hand still buried in his hair I let my other hand draw a line from his chin down his throat and farther, passing the soft hair on his rock hard chest, passing the strong muscles of his stomach, his belly button and continuing its way down, following the path of light hair just beneath the waistband of his jeans. Despite the loose denim there wasn't enough room for him and my hand, so I stroked him just once above the denim, before I started to unbutton those unnecessary pants.

He groaned into my mouth, pulled back a little and then stood up to take them off. I took in the sight of him, the sight of his perfect body, my eyes wandering from his slightly narrowed eyes down to other interesting regions. But though looking at his strong and very masculine body was magnificent, it wasn't enough, wasn't even close. I wanted him, needed to feel his heated skin on mine, wanted to feel him merging with my body.  
And I realized something. If he would continue like that, I wouldn't survive long enough. I used my chance and quickly pulled off my panties, which was when another thought crossed my mind.

Oh shit.  
Oh no.  
I didn't... we hadn't… fuck.  
Pritkin had moved back on the bed, now back on his knees in front of me, while my mind, suddenly back on track, raced on full speed through the remaining possibilities.  
Something must have been on my face because Pritkin's eyes came back up to meet mine. He followed the curve of my eyebrow with his thumb and gently stroked my cheek.  
"What's bothering you, Cassie? Out with it. I can see it. If you like me to stop or if I did something you didn't like-"  
"No," I quickly interrupted him, "it's just… you're part human," Pritkin raised a single eyebrow at that "and I'm a woman and we…well, please don't get me wrong, you know, it's not like I would never want it, but right now, with the ongoing war and all…"  
Pritkin started to say something, but I just talked over him.  
"We didn't talk about contraception and I'm not prepared because I didn't plan-"  
His eyes narrowed suspiciously.  
"Did you just tell me, that after the 'war and all', you're considering to have a baby with me?"  
Did I? Oh, wow. I guess, I did. Only he had caught up faster than I had. But that wasn't the point.  
"Uhm, I… think so, but that's not what I meant right-"

Pritkin started to laugh. He just knelt there in front of me for a moment and laughed, his whole body shaking.  
I twitched his skin on the side of his stomach.  
"Damnit Pritkin! Don't you dare make fun of me, now!"  
But his laughter was so amazing, that despite all, I had to smile with him.  
He shook his head.  
"Cassie, I didn't think - or well, I would never, never have thought that even once in my life I would actually say this, but: I'm glad, as in really happy, to be in a hotel that was run by a vampire possessed incubus!"  
"You...what?" I wasn't really sure what he meant. "What do you mean?"  
"You never opened one of the nightstands before your guards had checked the room, did you?" Pritkin grinned and suddenly grabbed me, almost throwing me on my back in the middle of the bed, before he crawled over to the nightstand to demonstrate what he meant. I enjoyed the view of his back until he opened the drawer. Now I got it.

It was packed with condoms. Different colours, different sizes, different tastes. Hell, even the drugstore hadn't had such a selection. I couldn't help myself and beamed a bright smile at him, filled with desire and anticipation.


	10. Chapter 10

Then he was over me and I forgot the world around us.

His lips met mine, I felt his calloused hand between my legs, his hardness pressed against my thigh. I dug my fingers into his skin, trying to pull him closer. When he didn't move, I pulled myself toward him instead, arching up my back, urging him to finally take me.

I gasped and cried out his name, when he gently slid two of his fingers into me. Within minutes I almost drowned in sensation, but despite the pleasure of it, I wanted more. I cupped his face with my hands and forced him to look at me.

"I love you, Pritkin and I want you," I whispered against his lips, "All of you." His lips found mine again and he made a sound deep in his throat, before he lined himself up between my legs. When he began to push himself into me, with a smooth but careful motion, I pushed my hips up to meet him, forcing a surprised moan from his lips.

God, it felt so good. The feeling of our bodies mingling together as close as possible was almost overwhelming. I felt the stream of power, rushing toward us, pouring over us, around us and into us in waves, wild like a thunderstorm and soothing like a warm summer rain all the same.

And then Pritkin began to move and wiped the last coherent thoughts off my brain. Heat and pleasure surged through my body and if the sounds that escaped Pritkin were anything to go by, he probably felt the same.

I scraped my nails over the soft skin of his back, buried my hands in his hair and kissed him while he rocked us. With his smooth and steady motion, the pleasure within me build with every thrust and it didn't take long until I was panting and moaning beneath him. I felt the gentle scrape of his beard against my skin, his breath hot and becoming more heavy.

Pritkin paused and I could have sworn a spark crossed his eyes, before he sat up, grabbed my foot and lay it on his shoulder. He carefully started to move again, the sensation of feeling him so deep forcing a moan from my throat.

"Is this good?" he asked, his voice low and a little uncertain.

Oh, it was good, so good, but still, it wasn't enough.

"More," was all I managed to say.

That was better. I saw it in his eyes, when he understood. Finally he was willing to give me what I needed, to let go of the caution and concerns. His head leaned back in pleasure, his moans echoing mine.

Seeing Pritkin like this, forgetting all rationality, his iron control gone, doubts vanished… it was glorious.

"Oh, don't stop….don't-" Pritkin drank my words with a kiss and that was it. The new angle combined with the all in all sensory overload forced my body to surrender in a mind shattering orgasm.  
I still felt the waves of pleasure pulsing through my body, felt the tension in my muscles ease, felt myself clenching around him, when Pritkin came, his body shuddering and trembling with the sensation.

After a few more minutes and a few more gentle kisses he rolled off me with a sheepish grin. I hadn't even imagined him to have that particular look in his repertoire, but it seemed Pritkin never failed to surprise.

He seemed a little surprised though, when I turned and lay my head on his chest to cuddle. For a few more moments I just enjoyed being held like this, to hear his heartbeat and feel his warmth. My fingers played automatically with the slightly damp curls on his chest. It was so peaceful that I almost couldn't believe it was true. After all that time, after all we've been through, he was finally here with me. I sighed happily, even if I knew that this moment of peace wouldn't last.

"I hope you're content with your price," he said after a while, placing a soft kiss on my head.

"That doesn't count." I could practically feel one of his eyebrows going north.

"What? Why?"

I turned my head and pushed myself up so I was able to look at his face and see his reaction.  
"Isn't it obvious? If it's supposed to be my price, then I will decide how to...proceed with it. You've teased me and pampered me and please, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. No, I really enjoyed it, but if it's supposed to be my price, I want to… return the favour."

"You mean you want to be in charge? Well, I'm sure we could manage-" Pritkin went abruptly silent and I just wanted to get up in alarm, but he caught my shoulders and held me close.

"It's just Jonas. He can't hear us through the silence spell," he told me, the very same moment I heard someone knock on Pritkin's door.

"John?" A knock, followed by a pause filled with silence.  
"Cassie?" Another knock. I could already hear the impatient undertone in Jonas' voice.  
Pritkin sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.

"Well, I know you're in the-" the abrupt silence was weird and Pritkin acted immediately, getting up and pushing me behind his still very naked self in one fast movement.

I almost fell back on the bed when a sudden unexpected image appeared in my head. Now, that was truly weird.  
"Uhm, Pritkin?"

"What is it?" he was alarmed, and grabbed a weapon from the shelf beside the bed. Until then I hadn't even noticed it being there.

"My power showed me something. I could see Jonas, face planted on a huge wooden table, surrounded by documents, files maybe?"  
Pritkin thought about that for a moment.

"What else did you see?" he asked, lowering the weapon but not yet relaxing completely.

"There was a big poster on the wall in the background. I'm not quite sure, maybe it was a car? And...well, the confused and bewildered look on his face made him look even more crazy than usual."

"Jonas bureau in Stratford." Pritkin swallowed and definitely looked caught. Obviously I was missing something here.

"Startford? But how? I definitely didn't shift him there!"

"No, you didn't," Pritkin answered dryly and then my brain caught up.

"You did it! Oh my god! I should have thought about that." I knew that our moment of peace couldn't last, but to be honest, even I would have expected to have a little more time. The powerexchange was exactly that and Pritkin was such a powerful mage, I should have expected him to be able to use the pythian power.

"I merely wished him away and somehow his bureau came to my mind and pang, he was gone," Pritkin confessed, put his gun away and picked some fresh clothes out of his sideboard. "Bloody hell, I should have known better than that. We have two hours at best," he said. As if to confirm that, Pritkin's phone rang.

"To do what?" I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, deliberately ignoring the annoying sound of the phone.

"To find a plausible explanation how you were able to shift him into a room, where you've never been before. And - you know, the more important question - WHY you would just shift him there."

Ok, that was a problem. I crawled back onto the bed again, deciding that I didn't have to be standing upright to think about this and threw a pillow above my head to dampen the noise of the still ringing phone.

But it also dampened all other noises.  
"I'm sorry," I heard through the pillow.  
It had been Pritkin's voice and there was nobody there except us, but still… An apology from Pritkin wasn't something you got to hear often. Most of the time this was my part. I lifted the pillow and grinned at him. I just couldn't help it.  
"Would you please repeat that? I'm not sure I heard right."  
His answer was a glare that could have cut through steel, but obviously he was in a good mood, because the glare turned into a smirk and he shook his head.

"No, but I could bring you some Coffee, if you like. It may help to clear your mind."

I would have been offended by that, if it wasn't for that boyish grin on his face. Anyway it sounded like a plan, I thought, in any case worth a try.  
"Mhm," I said and Pritkin took off to rummage in the kitchenette.

I really tried to come up with something, but my brain was stuck on 'oh my god, I feel so good' with all that power humming through me, not like that overwhelming flood from the last time, but nonetheless a nice straight power upload. My thoughts somewhat couldn't stay focused and wanted to relax within the afterglow a little longer.

Another few minutes later I peaked out from beneath my pillow and saw Pritkin lingering in the doorway. So far he'd only bothered with jeans, which I decided was a really good look on him. What I didn't see was a mug.

Instead he held up a skin coloured peace of plastic, which took my still happily humming brain a full second to recognize.

"Would you like to explain why I have fake fey ears on my kitchen counter?"

Yes, yes, that was at least something I had an explanation for.

"Coffee first? Please?"

Pritkin picked up a steaming blue mug from the kitchen counter behind himself and held it out.  
"Come and get it."

I got off the bed and could almost feel his gaze upon me. Only then did I realise, that I hadn't yet bothered to put on some clothes. Pritkin looked smug. But then, two could play that game.  
I did my best to move as sexy and elegant as possible when I slowly picked up my clothes and started to dress.

When I was done, I grabbed the mug, deliberately entering his personal space and kissed him. God, I could do this all day.

Then I felt a small piece of plastic slightly stabbing me on my back.

"I'm all ears," Pritkin said, after I had pulled back.

I took a sip.  
"Obviously we're going to a costume party."


	11. Chapter 11

"Since I'm stuck with 'slave-girl', I thought it only fair for you to be the 'big-bad-fey-slaver'", I told him matter of factly and couldn't stop myself from a muttered "you wouldn't have to try too hard", with just a hint of sarcasm in my voice.

I still wasn't sure which parts of his long gone - but for me just recently happened - past he remembered. Being sold to the fey for sex-slavery was certainly not something I'd forget soon. Sure, I had understood afterwards, that he'd done it to make sure I'd end up in the camp outside of Camelot, where he'd find me again. But it had been a shock anyway. I realized, that it still hurt, even it wasn't logical or truly justified.

I quickly shoved that thought away. No, I won't let this stuff get to me. I just won't. Where was the point? It wasn't like he'd had a lot of alternatives. No, he didn't have a chance an that was it.

I took a mental break.  
Where the hell had that thought even come from? Maybe all the things from the past days finally caught up with me.  
God, I was in desperate need of a vacation.  
A long one.  
Seriously.

A shadow crossed Pritkin's eyes, but it passed so fast, that I might have imagined it. But then, something was up, I could see it in the way his jaw tightened and his hands unconsciously closed to fists. Since he didn't say anything, I decided to go for it.

"Well, if you'd do me this favour, I might consider to forget about that." The expression on his face made it immediately clear, that this hadn't been one of my best moves.

"And why should I bother?", he snapped, suddenly looking pissed. "It was centuries ago and had been a necessary disguise at that time. It's not like anybody got seriously hurt."

"Nonetheless something about it bothers you, or why are you so angry suddenly?"

Pritkin lowered his voice, which was almost never a good sign.

"You want to know what bothers me? Good, I'll tell you. What really bothers me is the fact, that you really believed, I would do this to you." Pritkin's face became more red with every sentence.

"You truly thought that I'd sell you to the fey and leave you there, for them to do who knows what to you? To let them rape you and use you as some sort of birthing machine?" He grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eyes.  
"How could you believe that I'd do this? How, Cassie?"

Shit, I had never thought about it like this. The thought hadn't even occurred to me so far.  
"You didn't know who I wa-"

"No, no I didn't. But does it matter? Would it have made a difference if you had been any other woman? Cassie, I know I've done bad things in my life, had made some bad and incredibly stupid decisions. But never ever would I have done such a terrible thing!"  
He shook his head more from disappointment than anger and let me go, which made it even worse.

"Pritkin wait, I know." It was my turn to grab his arm now. "I know and I'm sorry, that I didn't realize it earlier. Though I know that it's a terrible excuse, I wasn't exactly at my best right then. The whole situation really got to me." I tried my best to explain my situation at that time. After all he was right, I should have known better.  
"It was so much pressure, too much really...It's been a day or rather a week or well, I guess…you'll get the idea." I took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to describe how desperate I had felt and how lost I'd been.

"The fate of the whole world weighed on my shoulders and you - the present Pritkin-you, not the past Myrddin-you - you were... gone. I couldn't talk to anybody but Rosier, I couldn't trust anybody else, I was… lonely, I guess and afraid. I was almost convinced that I had already failed, that you were dead and it was all my fault. And to see… to see you die…" Suddenly I couldn't hold back the tears anymore and felt them run down my cheeks.  
"There were so many people around me, but nobody knew. Nobody was allowed to know, to understand… it's just… in fact, you are the one person in the world I really trust and... I've missed you, okay?!"

Pritkins expression visibly softened.  
"That's probably as good as it gets as an apology", he nodded thoughtfully, "ten more push ups in our next training session would certainly be enough as punishment."  
Yeah, as if it hadn't been obvious that I would have face planted this morning if I'd had to do even a single one more. Pritkin couldn't hide his grin completely.

"Three and you'll accompany me tomorrow!"

"Four and I will consider it."

"Four and I'll get to eat a piece of cake without you bitching about how unhealthy it is."

"Four and I'll accompany you. That's my last offer."

"Agreed." I would eat my piece of cake anyway and happily listen to him bitching about the huge amount of sugar it contained.

He answered with a short nod. "Good, we have a deal."  
And with that he pulled me into his arms again, almost spilling my coffee in the process.

"I take it, you don't necessarily need the fake ears, but I thought, I'd bring them anyway."


	12. Chapter 12

It turned out that two hours had been a pretty optimistic assumption. I had barely finished my coffee and returned to my suite when I heard Jonas' voice from outside my room. I couldn't understand what he was saying, but Marco's response hadn't sounded particularly nice.

Merely a second later I heard Marco's characteristical no-nonsense-short knock on my door and his dry voice informed me about the almost on schedule arriving of my 3 pm appointment, when it was already half past four. I was pretty sure that he and Jonas would never become best buddies. It didn't help that Jonas always found something to bitch about when he arrived and Marco never missed a chance to make digs at him. I had to admit that sometimes I really couldn't blame him there.  
At least he was diplomat enough not to seriously piss him off.

When I opened the door Jonas stood behind Marco and looked around him, holding up some kind of scroll in his right and a ridiculously long necklace in his left. A pendulum, I realized with a sinking feeling. Jonas was surrounded by the faint glow of his shields and Marco stood his ground between me and him, but the expected ranting didn't come, at least not yet.

"Hello Cassie, your bodyguard keeps friendly reminding me, that I'm too late and therefore had missed our appointment. I keep telling him that I was forced to make a detour, but I'm pretty confident that this isn't exactly news to you, is it?"  
"Not really." I shrugged apologetically.  
"Hello Jonas. It's okay Marco, it was sort of my fault."

Marco sighed and stepped aside with an exaggerated gesture.  
"As you wish, my lady!" He didn't even try to hide a mischievous grin.

"Jonas, I-"  
"I'm sure you have a good explanation for what you did, but we'll come to that later. For now... I'm proud of your progress, by the way… but for now we've got work to do."  
"You want me to find somebody?"  
"To find something would probably be more accurate. Yes." Jonas looked at me with optimistically glowing blue eyes and immediately I had a sinking feeling. This didn't sound good. He had every right to assume that I shifted him over the ocean and let him face plant onto his desk and it really wasn't like him to just wave it away. Nope, I was sure I'd have to pay for Pritkin's little moment of inadvertence. The remaining questions were when and how.  
I was almost certain that I wouldn't like this. Probably not at all.

The living room was still crowded and I'd promised Pritkin not to leave the hotel without him, which was why Jonas and I ended up in the poor remains of what had once been a booming tiki-bar.  
Obviously most of the furniture had become victim of the several attacks the casino had suffered within the last few months. I remembered the bar as a place filled with life, people drinking and talking, underlined with exotic background music and the unmistakable gentle invitations that the incubi or sartyr employees whispered into the customers ears here and there. The now screaming silence was creepy.

At least the bar itself had survived. Jonas stood a moment beside me and took in the disaster around us, before he carefully laid his grey tweed jacket over a nearby chair.  
"Well, I think it has to do. If you could hold this, please?" He handed me the pendulum and the scroll, that I figured was a map, but I instinctively hesitated to touch them. I knew that some magical objects were specifically designed to work as a trigger or supporter for visions and usually I avoided them like vampires avoided the sun.

But I was Pythia now and it was my job to see. I couldn't run away anymore as I did back in the good old days, which seemed to be a lifetime ago, when only a few months had passed. Bad as it was, the fate of the world could depend on what I saw and what my interpretation was, which was still freaking me out. There was no point in avoiding, though, but I suppose old habits die hard.

I appreciated the fact that Jonas didn't push it, probably due to his past experiences with Agnes. He just stood there and waited patiently until I had my shit together and carefully took the pendulum first and - as nothing happened - the map. Jonas looked a little disappointed by my obvious lack of instant-vision.

"Well, dear, I'm afraid we'll have to do this the old way then." He turned his back to me and started rummaging in the pockets of his jacket.  
I sat down and watched Jonas put a candle on a big round table. He mumbled something and set the candle alight, which burned with a shining dark blue colour, highlighting his grey bunch of hair with silver and blue shimmers. He got some chalk out off the pocket of his trousers and drew a circle with a pentagram in the middle. Compared to Jonas' last scribbling, it was surprisingly accurate.  
Then he continued to draw symbols on the points where the tips of the pentagram crossed the circle. When he was finished the blue flame changed into a deep green with an audible wuuush and he nodded visibly satisfied.

"Did you ever do a séance before?" he asked and took back his map to spread it out above the pentagram.  
I shook my head.  
"I didn't have the time to try since I became Pythia and I hadn't felt the need to do so before." Only seeing the horrors and tragedies life has to give somewhat does that to a person.

"Ah, yes, I was afraid you'd say that. My schedule is a bit tight today, so for now let's concentrate on the subject. We can make it a regular part of your training and I'll explain the details of how it works later. Agreed?"  
"Agreed." I nodded resigned, as if I had much of a choice.

"Yes, uhm, where do we start?" Jonas started do dig in the jacket's pockets again and a knife appeared in his hand. It wasn't big, but slightly curved and the shining metal looked razorsharp. Jonas continued, apparently not noticing anything unusual about fidgeting with a blade in front of my face, in a hotel full of vampires their goal it was to protect me. Luckily the guards that accompanied us, had agreed to back off and give us some space, as I had ordered them to stay outside the room.  
Honestly I was still surprised that it had actually worked.

"Doing a séance means using a very rudimentary form of magic, but from what Agnes had told me, it tends to work surprisingly well. Some people might say it's a bit barbaric and outdated, but it will do. Which hand do you prefer for holding a weapon?"  
I could make a pretty good guess what my hand and his knife had to do with a séance, he was right, this was antiquated. It was outdated for a reason.

"You need my blood, don't you?" I tried to brace myself for what was about to happen and for the pain that would come with the cut. Compared to the injuries, cuts and scratches I had collected lately - I suppressed the unfortunate memory of getting shot in the butt - it was ridiculous, but to actually know about it beforehand, somehow made it worse.  
I bravely stretched out my left hand above the map and took a closer look at it for the first time. It didn't look familiar. On the contrary, the map showed a variety of different landscapes marked with weird names and foreign symbols. It wasn't our world, I realized, when Jonas nodded.

"I would use mine, but I'm not a seer, it wouldn't be much help. I'm afraid this will hurt a little."  
He quickly cut a clean line into my palm and the sudden burning pain made me wince. Immediately blood welled out of the wound and dribbled onto the map. Barely an eyeblink passed until two Vamps stood suddenly beside me, wildly searching for a threat. The third Vamp - all tall, blond and handsome - cursed and protectively held his hand. He must have tried to take Jonas' knife and had underestimated the mage, who still had the knife in his hand and his shield strong and shimmering around him.  
Of course they had smelled the blood and assumed the worst, which - to their defence - was usually true.

"Good evening gentlemen", Jonas greeted them with a calm voice, "there's no problem here, you can wait outside."  
"Sure, because we're known for trusting mages", the vamp didn't hold back the sarcasm in his voice. "We can smell the fresh blood. This is an assault on the Pythia!"  
I blinked, mentally counting to ten. I wasn't in the mood for powerplays right now, but Jonas already answered.  
"Ah, well, and I'm sure that whatever you had in mind with my knife couldn't have been considered as an assault on the leader of the silver circle?"  
The vamp glared at Jonas, but kept his mouth shut.

"I can assure you I'm fine. The small cut is part of the ritual and I volunteered to do it."  
The blond vamp looked at my hand. The bleeding had already stopped. He didn't look happy, but nodded and motioned his team outside.

"Now all you have to do is concentrate and focus." Jonas looked at the blood on the map expectantly.  
I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and concentrated on the warm golden feeling that happily hummed beneath my veins.


	13. Chapter 13

_I opened my eyes and the first thing I noticed was the moving ground beneath my feet. I stumbled, but managed to grab something and held on for dear life - which turned out to be a good thing, because it prevented me from falling from about three stories height, down into the huge waves of a tumultuous ocean. It took me a second to work through this new near death experience, that had practically hit me out of nowhere. I took a few steadying breaths and well -_  
 _On a second look, I hadn't grabbed something but someone. Or rather the soft, but luckily strong wool of someone's cloak._

 _My eyes followed the cloak and then stopped, taking in the face of a beautiful brunette woman. She looked vaguely familiar with her long brown hair, slightly tanned skin and dark brown eyes. I opened my mouth to thank her for saving my ass, when her eyes went huge, wild terror on her face and she screamed something in a language I didn't understand. Before I could process that, she grabbed my arm and tore us down to the ground._  
 _Which I hit facefirst._  
 _Hard._  
 _Just in time._

 _I felt something flying slightly over my head, so close that it almost touched my hair and heard a screaming voice over the sound of the waves crashing against the ship and the loud, steady hum of the ship's motors. It took me a second to realize that I was the one screaming, but it wasn't my voice. Just like it wasn't my arm, that the woman still had in a tight grip._

 _No, this was definitely a male arm, I realized, before something exploded in a deafening growl a few feet behind us, rocking the whole ship, sending vibrations through the floorboards beneath my face. Or make that the face of whoever's body I'd inadvertently borrowed for a ride. I couldn't see any fire or flames yet and took a shuddering breath while I carefully pushed myself up on my borrowed elbows to look around, biting back the arising panic, almost waiting for the next curveball life would throw at me._  
 _Aaaaand ding ding, there it was._

 _At first, there wasn't much to see._  
 _Barely a few seconds after the explosion thick grey smoke had started to emerge from where the bomb - or grenade or whatever it was - had hit. Only it wasn't normal smoke and for a moment I just stared. The dark cloud swallowed the ship's deck, its railing, the ocean and everything more than a few inches away from my eyes, which didn't help with the panic. I shied back abruptly and tried to crawl away, to be as tiny a target as possible. The good thing was, that nobody could possibly spot us and aim for a shot, because within the smoke we were practically invisible._  
 _The obvious downside was, that I couldn't see worth a damn!_

 _I was surrounded by thick walls of smoke which dampened not just the light but the noise as well and it didn't stop there. Where a moment ago had been the grip of the woman's hand, I felt nothing anymore, but I hadn't felt her losing her grip either._  
 _The panic was back, this time with force. It must be a full blown panic attack, I thought and tried to concentrate, to slow down my rapid breathing, to slowly, repeatedly count to ten and think of something positive._

 _It didn't work._

 _It felt like a massive weight was pressed against my chest, forcing the desperately needed air out of me, already sending stabs of pain through my lungs and tears into my eyes. I tried to cough, but it didn't help. I tried to get away, but my legs and arms were too heavy and won't respond to my orders to crawl away anymore._  
 _The weird magical smoke was choking me._  
 _Yeah, trust me to drown on deck of a perfectly swimming ship, after being saved from drowning in a tumultuous ocean._  
 _And then everything went black._

 _"Palmeer!"_  
 _I heard a voice, but couldn't place it, it was so far away, it didn't matter._  
 _"Proastă proastă!" The voice railed at someone._  
 _"Come on!" I heard, but couldn't bring myself to get a meaning out of it. What was this about?_  
 _"Palmeer!"_  
 _There was something, some distant feeling. Was this me? Was this the woman? What did she do? Everything was so...calm, calm but strangely...confusing._  
 _The feeling came back again, more intense this time, almost burning._  
 _Silence again._  
 _Ah, that was nice._  
 _Slap._  
 _Not nice._  
 _Again, slap._  
 _Not nice, again. Grrrrrnnn, stop this._  
 _It didn't stop and then the pain was back._

 _Instantly my eyes flashed open, but all I could see was a curtain of dark hair. What I could feel, were lips on mine and the incredibly weird sensation of getting air blown into me, before I started to cough and cough and cough some more, feeling weak and shaken, but alive._

 _At least for now, I thought, when my borrowed eyes glimpsed the expression on Mircea's face, as he arrived behind the woman._  
 _Holy shit._

 _My vision started to blur again, combined with a strange tugging feeling in my gut. It reminded me of my earlier times as not-wanna-be but gonna-be-soon-anyway Pythia, when the power had pulled me to my duty._  
 _Which was exactly, what happened here, I realized. But instead of getting me back to my current reality, my surroundings shriveled, crumbled and waved, changing shape and forming into something else. Or to be more precise, into somewhere else._

 _I could feel water splashing against my skin. It was freezing cold and it was rather a lot, sending shivers down my spine. The coat I wore was already soaked, probably from the huge waterfall behind me. I went on and every step was accompanied by the squelching sound of wet shoes on slick stone._

Almost there.

 _Okay, that wasn't my thought. What the hell?_

There.  
 _On the ground in front of me was a big design, made of canals and pipes, following circles and symbols, most of which I didn't know._

I made it.  
Despite everything, I made it.

 _A little vial appeared in my hand and apparently I was merely a blind passenger, captured in his mind, without being able to interfere. He whispered something in a language I didn't understand before he opened the vial and let the dark liquid it contained drop onto the symbols on the floor._

There was only one more thing to do.

 _I could only watch as the hand of my burrowed ride took a dagger off his boot._

Liz, I'll finally be with you again.

 _I cut my throat in one liquid move._


End file.
